SteveB_NI

Any good April fools happening in your schools today? I have lightened the LCD screen on our photocopier & placed a sheet of acetate with a fake error message on top of this. It looks like a genuine photocopier error I also told the work placement technician when she arrived into work that one of our laptop trolleys had been wheeled away overnight - her face was one of shock & disappointment. My face - if someone had told me the same thing would have been the complete opposite!

Although a lot of us are used to doing a lot of work with little thanks, I'm quite lucky here - I've been given thank you cards and a number of small presents from pupils in the past - even from past pupils who have came back to ask for computer coursework advice! 1 heart-warming moment I had quite recently was after I was told about a pupil who could not participate in a trip until her work was handed in. Unfortunately the printer decided to play up at that point - cue a disappointed pupil. Once I heard the story I fixed the problem & actually went for a trip around the school looking for the pupil to give her the printouts. Seeing the pupils face light up and thank me as she ran off to hand the work in made my day!

I recently had to replace the Image transfer kit / belt on a HP 4600 Colour Laser Printer. I'm just wondering if this can be recycled within normal toner collection or if these transfer kits should just be disposed of in normal waste? cheers!

Oi! nothing wrong with an Astra I love mine!

hehe, I can't get away with anything these days!

I'm going to be given a computer I need to rebuild but unfortunately Microsoft Office (not sure what version yet but I presume 2003) is installed but the user does not recall where they placed the installation CD. Is there any way of ripping the files off the hard drive to aid installing onto a new build? cheers!

Is there any jobs / tasks which you have all put off due to lack of time, but always planned to catch up on at some point? I'm just going through old summer / easter job lists which I make for myself, and the amount of things such as equipment cleaning / checking which has not been completed since is crazy... purely due to time constraints!

After many months of use in classrooms we have finally got to a stage where the trolley can be moved pretty much immediately after the end of teaching period... To get to this stage however, I have had to put up with: Keys being left in the lock whilst moving them - resulting in broken keys Cables being left connected whilst moving - pulling network sockets apart A particular manouver which buckled the wheels due to how often it was made Laptops frequently being logged off but not shut down Trolley being moved but not actually booked It drove me mad during the initial month or so - I had to train class after class how to safely use the laptops. We are finally at a position where teachers will be able to move the laptops & connect them, themselves! I think.

In my experience that message only appears for a short period of time. You will probably find by after lunch today it will not appear anymore. I guess once there is enough responses to prove its nothing dodgy.

"Just the man" is a common one here, alongside the usual "Whilst I see you", or "before I forget". I nearly choked with laughter reading about the photocopier and the plank putting a whole ream, seal included, into the tray lol! Today I had a call asking if my colleague was available, he wasn't, and then I was asked if I was free at the time... because I dared to say, sorry, I'm a little busy at the mo, the teacher grr'ed at me, and said "arrgh!". I really should get a GPS tracker on my colleagues - I'm ALWAYS expected to know where they are at every point of every day!

We got a load of CRT monitors, old base units, printers (including an old dot matrix hehe!) and scanners removed today. Thats 2 stores cleared, now to move onto the individual classroom rogue computers and main store! Anyway, I'm based in Co. Antrim (N.Ireland) and for those who are interested, I can recommend a company called AMI http://www.amiltd.ie/ - it was organised via the Education board if I recall correctly (I didn't organise it) but price wise, I think it's about £8 for each base unit, including hard drive disposal. Fully WEEE compliant.

That sounds very similar to a problem I was experiencing with loads of student laptops - only it was wireless access disconnecting. I found the solution to be driver related - update the drivers, and if the latest version is installed, I'd uninstall and re-apply it again. The wireless network symbol didnt actually appear to be disconnected when it happened with the pupils, but it lost connectivity and eventually froze beyond all use - until a reboot. Failing that, I presume the wireless network adapter on the laptop is turned off / disabled? Maybe a wireless network is interfering with the wired connection. Hope this helps, good luck as I know they are a right pain to fix (connectivity problems that is, not head teachers )

I have decided to make the job of setting up laptop trolleys in each room a lot easier today.... by running a long extension lead from 1 corner of the room to the back of the room - right by the door. This prevents having to move desks / cause disruption when moving the trolley into and out of classrooms. I plan to cable tie the power lead (and accompanying network cable) at many intervals, and use sticky cable tie fixer pads to secure the cable to existing skirting boards etc. I'm not sure of the legality either, but each socket will have a sign on it saying "For laptop trolley use only" and will be securely attached as much as possible to a wall. Vandalism here is pretty much non-existant here (touch wood) - so bar a few people who "forget" to release the snag on the network cable when removing it, it should be ok!

Thanks for the replies everyone - I will look into getting an external monitor for him then - at least the power button connection is fixed I have had to reseat the display cable for a few Dell Inspirons & various other repairs in my school & I agree the build quality of the Acer laptops in comparison to these are poor.

I could always find a cheapish TFT monitor for his room & use the laptop as a base unit I guess. I've had the laptop in pieces more times than I care to imagine recently - including buying a service manual for the range.

Hi all, I've spent a bit of time trying to fix my brothers Acer Travelmate 2410 laptop but with no luck... basically he dropped it with the power cable connected which broke off the power connector from the motherboard. I replaced the mainboard after finding a cheap spare on Ebay... now I've discovered that when certain pressure is applied (such as even putting the top cover on above the keyboard) the display disappears - I thought the cables were broken (I haven't had a chance to check external display yet) so took the display plastic surround off - when powering back up it was somewhat evident why this was occurring - it sparked! Now I have a dark tint to the LCD display - is it likely that the LCD cables, the inverter and now the LCD display have blown? Everything else appears to be working ok. Has anyone a spare inverter / ribbon cables for the 2410? Cheers for any help, Steven

It's not too bad, but to be honest I wish I had more interaction with the hardware side of things. I'm happy in this job though because due to Northgate managed service I am able to concentrate more on other development work which will continue to benefit the school. Just wish the school was open more over xmas so I could get this done!

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Thankfully Comic Sans seems to be on the way out here.... I even got my Interview letter written in it if I remember correctly lol! I use Verdana for most documents, also Trebuchet and Tahoma, Arial Rounded is quite nice too.

Good luck HalfMad, hope you enjoy your new employment. Likewise, good luck for your future plans Richard.

lol tried to look at the first link on our managed service network (Internet connection filtering not fully controlled by us in school) and it says: Banned: Tasteless! D'oh!

Our lot disappear next Friday half day.... followed shortly by our own Xmas lunch / night out. Work-wise over Xmas I'm off all xmas week + Mon + tues 1st. Xmas holidays this year are awful short & include 2 staff inset days which is a shame as I want time alone to catch up on maintenance / installs etc. Saying that though, I'm working all thru Christmas in my 2nd job including Boxing day and NYE nightshift.

I wear smart-casual to work, but at present am wearing a t-shirt and jeans My room is freezing though, so a hoodie has been on and off all day so far. I would much rather wear smart clothes but they would just get ruined with all the crawling about under desks etc that I have to do!

Thats a good idea Grumbledook - I'll look into that idea tomorrow during work

In my school we have 2 laptop trolleys - each hold 20 laptops but can hold up to 30 - big Lapsafe beasts. Due to the layout of the school we can only use them on 1 big long corridor, and I have conveniently based 1 trolley at each end of this corridor. The trolley at 1 end is pretty well managed by the department themselves, it is used for 3 subjects based in the same area, so the teachers or pupils move the trolley themselves. Occasionally this trolley moves up the corridor though, and for that my assistance is often required. The other trolley is used throughout the corridor, and is mostly moved by myself. Now imagine the scene.... 1 large trolley & several doors to go through. I often have to open the doors & push the trolley through, and often up & down small ramps by myself. Not good - but the arm muscles have definitely got bigger! I'm at the stage now where I feel (as does my boss) that my time is better spent elsewhere. The teachers have had a term of technician assistance setting up laptops - it's time for a policy to be drawn up to encourage (where possible, I mean GCSE years onwards) pupils to move laptop trolleys themselves, or even teachers. The policy includes a procedure similar to: first booked class - technician moves trolley to class, then from that class onwards, the pupils / staff return trolley to a generalised collection point. Hopefully this will get SMT approval soon.